English

Non-Abelian p-Curvature and a Non-Abelian Katz's Formula

Algebraic Geometry 2026-04-23 v1

Abstract

Let kk be a field of characteristic p,p, and f:XSf : X \to S a smooth proper morphism of smooth kk-schemes. Katz's formula gives a relationship between the Kodaira--Spencer map of f,f, and an invariant called the pp-curvature of the Gauss--Manin connection associated to f.f. Recently, Lam--Litt proved a variant of Katz's formula in non-abelian Hodge theory, and suggested that it should be possible to give a more conceptual proof of their formula using the stacky approach to pp-adic Hodge theory. In this article, we realize their suggestion, explaining how the rather concrete phenomena observed by Katz and Lam--Litt can be explained in a conceptual way using sheared de Rham stacks, as developed by Bhatt--Kanaev--Vologodsky--Zhang and Drinfeld (though we prove a slightly different statement than Lam--Litt do). We do not assume the reader has any background in the theory of de Rham stacks.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2604.20054,
  title  = {Non-Abelian p-Curvature and a Non-Abelian Katz's Formula},
  author = {Michael Barz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.20054},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

20 pages. comments welcome!